brilliant 30: Artist Hyunjin Bek

Q. What motivates you to work with multiple mediums including short film, music, and images?

A. For as long as I can remember, I have enjoyed music and drawing; now, I find myself gravitating towards painting on flat surfaces and generating sounds. Through careful consideration, I select the medium that I feel comfortable with, and sometimes I choose multiple media to work with.

Considering how we humans are also part of nature, the idea of progress and advancement to me is rather misleading. I think there is only change in nature; in fact, I know this is true.- Hyunjin Bek –

Q. What have you been working on recently?

A. For about 2 years, I have delighted in working with sounds made by an analog synthesizer. I particularly enjoy generating and manipulating sounds between the range of 50Hz and 100Hz. This is a fantastic experience for me because I find it soothing. It achieves a trance-like state, leaving you with a clear, glowing feeling. I am at the gallery performing for at least two hours every day, designing new sounds to install in the solo exhibition space.

Q. What values or goals do you seek to present or achieve through your work?

A. The end result is not in my mind while I am working. I try to keep the process as open to improvisation as possible, and take an intuitive approach to creating art, maintaining a balance between objective detachment and my own curiosity. Considering that we humans are also part of nature, the idea of progress and advancement to me is rather misleading. I think there is only change in nature; in fact, I know this is true. Naturally, my works transform one thing into another, and are not intended to improve anything. While the Greeks grouped people and animals into separate categories, the Chinese considered humans as a subcategory of the animal kingdom; like them, I recognize that human beings are a part of the animal kingdom–a part of nature. I also recognize that in nature, there is no such thing as "greater value". All I do is change, and I will continue to change until a day when there appears to be nothing left to change.

Q. What is painting, to you, and how do you go about your work?

A. A painting is what meets the eye, something that is physically seen. I think paintings are capable of conveying certain signals or signs to a person in a way many physical things cannot. Whatever my subject might be, I try to focus only on what it is possible to convey through brush strokes. My paintings resemble myself and my life, as is the case with any painter and their work. Life, as nature intended, is lived without clear systems or tangible plans; paintings, as part of life, are the same. When I look back on my life, I realize that I have not lived according to any apparent system or specific plan.

Q. What does art mean to you, and what do you pursue in terms of art?

A. Art is my life, my work, my amusement, my menial labor, my way home, my escape and place of refuge. I cannot be sure of what I am pursuing, but I know that it is okay not to know for sure.

Matter, Before Being Perceived as a Tool by a Certain Animal. 2015

Oil on Canvas. 180 x 150 cm

Something Resembling a Bird, With This Exact Overhead View as the Reference Point. 2014-2015

Oil on Canvas. 131.5 x 131.5 cm

It’s Yours, However It May Look. 2014-2015

Oil on Oil Paper. 136.3 x 104.8 cm

Civilization’s Gorge. 2014

Oil, Acrylic Spray, Oil Stick on Oil Paper. 136.3 x 105.2 cm

Vectors or Pixels or Whatsoever. 2015-2016

Oil on Canvas. 180 x 150 cm

Some Facts, Speculation, Delusion and Silence. 2015-2016

Oil, Acrylic Spray, Oil Pastel, Enamel Spray on Canvas. 180 x 150 cm

Impermanent Forever. 2015

Oil on Canvas. 180 x 150 cm

Blue Dog. 2015-2016

Oil, Colored Pencil on Canvas. 180 x 150 cm

Lowlifes

Oil, Oil Pastel on Oil Paper. 135.9 x 104.7 cm

Profile

Bek studied sculpture at Hongik University before dropping out. While establishing himself as a contemporary artist, he remained active across an impressive breadth of platforms, performing as a musician with the experimental indie band Uhuhboo Project while also working as an actor in feature films. A wide spectrum of media, music, paintings, and acting, are like different colors that represent Hyunjin Bek as an artist.